Al-Qaeda is not a single organisation. It’s more of a shared ideology that unites many disparate Islamic terrorist groups. The death of its (largely symbolic) leader will probably not scupper too many terrorist plots, nor will it convince many terrorists to lay down their arms. But, it is a symbolic victory for the West in the “War on Terror.”

Buried, too. They buried him at sea within 24 hours of his death (in accordance with Islamic law) rather than on land, because a grave on land would simply become a shine for terrorists to rally to.

I reckon this is where Al Qaeda go crazy and cause major havoc.

That’s the fear. One of the senior al’Qaeda members picked up in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo claims that al’Qaeda have a fail-safe in place: in the event that Osama bin Laden was captured or killed, al’Qaeda would detonate a nuclear device in a major European city. Granted, this was admitted years ago (it only became public knowledge when Wikileaks spilled it), and it’s likely that security forces scoured every city trying to locate the weapon, but it’s still a big concern.

That’s the fear. One of the senior al’Qaeda members picked up in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo claims that al’Qaeda have a fail-safe in place: in the event that Osama bin Laden was captured or killed, al’Qaeda would detonate a nuclear device in a major European city.

It’s a concern, but it’s something that was admitted six or seven years ago. And no doubt there is more that we haven’t been told (after all, we only found out about it because Wikileaks released it). The terrorist in question – Sheik Mohammed al-Someone Or Other – may well have been bluffing, he may have been telling the truth and the device found, or they may have been sold a dummy; there’s a legendary story of the Russian government leaking stories of “red mercury”, a fictional, but highly-important nuclear compound to the Russian press – anyone looking to acquire red mercury was clearly trying to purchase or build a nuclear device, making it easier for the Russians to find them (and one Serbian warlord allegedly spent millions of dollars on “red mercury”, only to find he’d bought a container of strawberry jam).

Reprisal attacks are very definately a concern for the world now that bin Laden is dead. But while the War on Terror might have dragged out for a decade, if there’s one thing the world’s intelligence service has proven, it’s that they’re very good at stopping terror attacks. It’s very likely Obama tipped off the world’s leaders about the Abottabad raid shortly before it went down, so that we can be prepared for when al’Qaeda come looking for blood.

It would likely be a Russian-made device, or one supplied by a rogue government like Iran. In the absence of a proper delivery system, it is likely – especially in the case of a Soviet-era device – that it would need to be manually armed. Some weapons give off higher levels of passive radiation when armed so as to prime the core for detonation; these levels of radiation can be detected far more easily than a dormant weapon.

And like I said, the claims that there was a warhead somewhere in Europe were made some time around 2004-05. If it was already in position, it’s entirely possible that the weapon has been found by now. It’s more likely that al’Qaeda would store the warhead somewhere where they could maintain complete control over it, then move it to their target once they were satisfied the West had stepped down its readiness level. They might be willing to blow themselves up, but that just means they’re seated in the crazy section, not the stupid section. Of course, this assumes that they even have a weapon.